Pranab rubs it in: No miracles,all numbers

The odds are in favour of Mukherjee but that did not stop him from appealing again to parties who were yet to make their support public basically aiming at UPAs sulking ally Trinamool Congress.

Formally launching his campaign for the top post,Mukherjee met senior alliance partner and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi who first suggested his name to the Congress high command.

He landed at the Air Force base at Tambaram,just outside city limits,in the evening to a boisterous and colourful welcome organised by the DMK. Mukherjees former cabinet colleagues Home Minister P Chidambaram and minister in charge of the PMO V Narayanasamy were present along with DMK treasurer and Karunanidhis son M K Stalin who formally extended the invitation to launch the campaign from Chennai to welcome him.

Among other notable leaders present were DMK leaders TR Baalu and A Raja.

After meeting Karunanidhi at the CIT Colony residence of his daughter Kanimozhi,Mukherjee recalled his decades-old association with the DMK chief and said this was the reason for choosing Chennai to formally launch his campaign. Karunanidhi said Mukherjees victory was a foregone conclusion.

Pranab a super power in UPA govt: Thackeray
Mumbai: Having declared his partys support for Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential poll,Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday described him as super power in the government and said the Opposition should be happy that with his election the government would become a lame duck. In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana,Thackeray said neither Mukherjee,nor the other candidate in the race BJP-backed P A Sangma could win the election without borrowed support.

PTI